NORMAN, Okla.  Bob Stoops has come a long way since his early days as a pupil of Bill Snyder at Kansas State, when there weren't enough defensive linemen on scholarship to make up a front four, or even a front three.

He's got a national championship and five Big 12 titles on his resume as a head coach, and No. 4 Oklahoma (6-1, 2-1 Big 12) is about as far removed as you can get from the K-State program of two decades ago that regarded one win as a huge step in the right direction.

The lessons he learned from Snyder during those hard times still hold true today, though, as Stoops prepares to take his Sooners back to his old stomping grounds for the third time.

"Coach Snyder was just so methodical that regardless of where we were and where we started - it was such a tough situation - that we found what are our measuring sticks and what are we improved at. Just trying to take a step and improve from week to week in whatever areas we could find," Stoops said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.

"We try and do that all the time."

The formula Snyder used to take one of the worst programs in college football - coming off back-to-back winless seasons - and make it a perennial Top 25 team still works.

Even when the Sooners seem to be playing at the highest level, Stoops still has a meticulous way of identifying areas where they can improve.

In last week's 45-31 win against Kansas, he didn't like the way his defense yielded 71 yards on five straight running plays on one second-half drive and he was even less enthused about the four plays of 40 or more yards by the Jayhawks. He'd also like to see kicker Jimmy Stevens, who missed two field goals on Saturday, carry over his strong practices into games.

In singling out the details, Stoops has been able to take an Oklahoma program that was experiencing hard times before he arrived and lead it back to being a national title contender on a regular basis.

"There are a lot of principles definitely that still pertain. I think it's just the way you approach each day and each week," Stoops said.

Stoops, who was Snyder's defensive backs coach for two years and his defensive coordinator for five more, tried to spread some of the Snyder gospel this spring when he invited his former mentor to speak at a high-school coaches clinic.

"I know coach has a great deal of respect for him, and he just kind of gave an overview of their program, their philosophy, things they believed in," offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.

"There might be some guys that have statistically better records, but from where they started and what he built is a great credit to not only him but the coaches he brought in. I know he is one of the more respected men of coach Stoops' life."

It was a bit of a reunion for Stoops and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables with Snyder, who retired after the 2005 season and was replaced by current Wildcats coach Ron Prince.

"He said it was going to be like a staff meeting: 'Bobby and Brent, you guys have been in a number of them. Brace yourself. It's going to be about an hour-and-a-half staff meeting here,"' said Venables, who played linebacker at K-State before joining Snyder's staff. Stoops hired him away when he became Oklahoma's head coach in 1999.

This will be the first time Stoops and Venables have returned to Kansas State (4-3, 1-2) since Snyder stepped down, although Venables predicted "he'll be lurking around there."

Regardless, it's a business trip this week as Stoops tries to lead the Sooners to a third straight win in Manhattan, Kan. Stoops is 4-1 overall against Kansas State, with the only loss coming when the undefeated Sooners were upset in the 2003 Big 12 championship game but still got to face LSU for the BCS championship.

Being at Oklahoma now longer than he was at K-State, some of the nostalgia of going back is lost on Stoops.

"I've already done that. Ten years now, I've been up there plenty," Stoops said. "I don't look at it like that."

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